[size=14pt]Ban on importation of rice underway -Jonathan[/size]
on NOVEMBER 17, 2011 · in NEWS
     
BY DANIEL IDONOR
ABUJA — PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, Friday, hinted of his plan to ban rice importation in his budget speech which he will soon present to the National Assembly.

The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, in a report entitled “Nigeria rice value chain analysis,” had put rice importation at three million metric tonnes annually with a total value of N468 billion ($3 billion).

President Jonathan who spoke while receiving the report of the Northern Economic Summit organised by the Professor Jerry Gana led G_20 Group, said Nigeria can no longer rely on rice import most of which have been stored in silos for more than 10 years, to feed her population.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/11/ban-on-importation-of-rice-underway-jonathan/

[size=15pt]AGAIN!![/size]

LMAO at another gaffe in progress! Another knee-jerk policy. No brains to think anything through. Talking before thinking! Naija. . .enjoy your fresh air rice!

The whole idea is dead on arrival.According to the Nigerian Voice;

'For now, importation of rice appears inevitable. Nigerian farmers produce less than half of domestic demand. Local consumption is estimated to be 5.3 million tons per year while 2.8 million is produced, leaving a shortfall of 2.5 million metric tons. Worse still, a large portion of what is produced rot in the farms owing to bad roads which discourage transporters. The few transporters who dare to venture into rural farming settlements charge prohibitively, thereby increasing cost, which makes locally grown rice uncompetitive in pricing when compared with imported rice'.
In Addition,Dangote remains one the largest importers of rice in the country,I don't see how the establishment would want to upset the apple cart.You don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

Guys, GEJ said UNDERWAY not IMMEDIATELY! Must you guys always witch-hunt him?? Somethings he says are bad, other are good. This one is good. Good one GEJ.

We all will be forced to by Ofada and Abakaliki rice which will help the local producers. The policy is needed.

looks like nigerians will have to go bak to eating fufu like before the british man came

men!!!!!!!! this fresh air is more like taking in carbon monoxide o!

can Nigeria produce a nulfe rice for all 166 million people

must we eat rice

ayoola23:

can Nigeria produce a nulfe rice for all 166 million people

Was discussing the exact sentiment with someone this morning.
How much has government put into the Agricultural sector to make us self-sustaining in the area of food production?

Nigeria is not even up to 5 percent agro-allied focused   we import nearly 70% of what we eat asides garri, yams, maize legumes and tomatoes. apples, oranges and pineapples are been brought across the border from cotonu. apparently they grow better/cheaper fruits there  

GEJ - If power is such a monster, why not put your full weight behind agriculture - subsidized loans, technical training (like the Malaysians did when they got their first palm fruits from Benin), free-lease farm-lands etc.  If you ban importation of rice how can the local market sustain Nigerians when we cannot even sustain Lagos on Akara alone  

men, even if FG ban importation of rice, we will still find imported rice in the market to buy. Though the price may be a little higher. So there is no cause for alarm.

@  jason123. I think you have a short memory. Is this not the policy of SAP being prepared for implementation again. I would also like to ask you how many times you eat Ofada rice in a week to support this policy? I  would also like to ask how the current agricultural system in NIG make up for the shortfall (if we produce any at all) when imported rice is eventually banned.

All the Govt pronouncements in the last 4 months have the resemblance of SAP developed and implemented by IBB in the late 80's (Good in theory but virtually impossible to implement by GOVT due to incompetent, lack of political will and ccorruption.

My take on this is that the Govt at all levels are broke and are looking for ways to balance their books without looking at their huge recurrent costs profile.

Gave directive or is it order for cement prices to crash,c where we are today.He shd jst talk less,there is a whole lot to do,talking reduces energy& thinking power he nids to do them

Maybe his new GCON awardee was sleeping when he made this statement

Jonathan dont do that ooo,because as i dey type dis i dey eat rice!!

lagerwhenindoubt:

Nigeria is not even up to 5 percent agro-allied focused   we import nearly 70% of what we eat asides garri, yams, maize legumes and tomatoes. apples, oranges and pineapples are been brought across the border from cotonu. apparently they grow better/cheaper fruits there  

GEJ - If power is such a monster, why not put your full weight behind agriculture - subsidized loans, technical training (like the Malaysians did when they got their first palm fruits from Benin), free-lease farm-lands etc.  If you ban importation of rice how can the local market sustain Nigerians when we cannot even sustain Lagos on Akara alone  

+1

Kx:

You have  crude oil in abundance locally, why dont you start by banning the importation of fuel
to enforce local production and refining of petrol products.??

Why ban the importation of what u don't produce enough of (rice) when u import what u have locally in abundance(fuel)

+1

Turns out there are smarter Nigerians than those who say they lead us.

Basics007:

Maybe his new GCON awardee was sleeping when he made this statement

i believe gej is dumb  though, but i strongly support the ban on importation of rice (which im sure is not gej's idea). we have a climate suitable for cultivating rice, yet, we choose to import 95% of rice consumed - not good at all for our economy

advice to gej about the ban
- create policies that will be strongly biased towards  rice production, which will consequently increase investment in large scale mechanized rice farming in the country (so, dont start by announcing a ban, but ur policies on increasing rice production)
- banning importation should be in phases, and should not start until the next rice planting and harvesting season
- and please note,  banning the import/ raising the import duty on rice will fuel smuggling, can only hope u r thinkin of ways of dealing with this

He said Rice and that could be Susan Rice or Condoleza Rice, he cannot mean agricultural rice because even in his utmost stupidity, Retardinho knows that we cannot produce enough to feed the population, any attempt to do so will only increase hardship for the people and thirdly any attempt at a ban on import will only create another source of revenue for the government in Benin republic.

That is correct since Nigeria is now exporting rice to all other Africa countries including Europe. We are producing 100,000% above the local consumption so the urgent need to stop the importation. Fresh air, I hail o.

GoodLuck!

Another

But to be honest this move is not bad. Please guys lets us stop abusing Gej for everything. Look at this situation from different perspective people(G20)  gathered together and came to him to say enough of Rice importation please lets look at how many Billions spend annually for importation of Rice this is too much for God sake.

Obj cried a lot as per food production when he was military preseident and same when he became civilian president but unfortunate he did not do much about it.

Buhari cried a lot for this when he was a military president and till today Buhari still want our home agriculture to take the centre stage of food production in Nigeria so pls where now does Gej get it wrong by welcoming the idea of banning rice? And by the way he has NOT say I Ban it yet why all this abuse again? All that Iis needed is just to be reducing the importation bit by bit and be supporting the Local farmer to gear up more in production of Rice.

Nigeria is big enough to be able to do more in food production for her citizens let the govt face the reality and do something about it $3Billion is too much oh! heaven haba.

Ban of rice importation = removal of rice subsidy.
GEJ is slowly & surely making life difficult 4 the average citizen. How can meet our rice when our rice needs production capacity is well below our needs, he is simply telling us to buy imported rice without the government subsidy(at your mwn expense) and increase local production capacity with our agric sector in pieces.
This president of ours is trying to tackle our corrupt system from an angle too tight.

Ten Kobo:

He said Rice and that could be Susan Rice or Condoleza Rice, he cannot mean agricultural rice because even in his utmost stupidity, Retardinho knows that we cannot produce enough to feed the population, any attempt to do so will only increase hardship for the people and thirdly any attempt at a ban on import will only create another source of revenue for the government in Benin republic.

by creating revenue for the benin govt atleast some nigerian in benin can benefit under the ECOWAS arrangement instead of Taiwan rice

No problem Jonathan and all members of the NA that will approve the ban should swear by Amadioha, Sango and Ogun lakaaye that if they ever eat imported rice may these gods strike them dead.

na wen nigerians see hunger na dat time we go discover our talent! if rice scarce, evrybody goface farm for village.

Kx:

You have  crude oil in abundance locally, why don't you start by banning the importation of fuel
to enforce local production and refining of petrol products.??

Why ban the importation of what u don't produce enough of (rice) when u import what u have locally in abundance(fuel)

No one could have said it better!!!

bisiaet:

But to be honest this move is not bad. Please guys lets us stop abusing Gej for everything. Look at this situation from different perspective people(G20)  gathered together and came to him to say enough of Rice importation please lets look at how many Billions spend annually for importation of Rice this is too much for God sake.

Obj cried a lot as per food production when he was military preseident and same when he became civilian president but unfortunate he did not do much about it.

Buhari cried a lot for this when he was a military president and till today Buhari still want our home agriculture to take the centre stage of food production in Nigeria so pls where now does Gej get it wrong by welcoming the idea of banning rice? And by the way he has NOT say I Ban it yet why all this abuse again? All that Iis needed is just to be reducing the importation bit by bit and be supporting the Local farmer to gear up more in production of Rice.

Nigeria is big enough to be able to do more in food production for her citizens let the govt face the reality and do something about it $3Billion is too much oh! heaven haba.

No body said the idea was bad, rather it is how He intends to go about it. First you need to improve local productivity of the commodity to international standard before thinking of Banning importation of rice.

How many rice farms in Abakaliki, Agenebode, or those in northern Nigerian has the government given a life line in the past two years? Let the FG work with the states and local government to create rice farms in each geopolitical zone in the country, with the focus and zeal, five years from now the government can think of banning importation of rice.

Doing this now may create artificial scarcity especially now that christmas is around the corner. Or maybe GEJ has some data we ordinary Nigerians do not have that gave him the conviction to think about bring the ban in now rather than later.

bisiaet:

But to be honest this move is not bad. Please guys lets us stop abusing Gej for everything. Look at this situation from different perspective people(G20)  gathered together and came to him to say enough of Rice importation please lets look at how many Billions spend annually for importation of Rice this is too much for God sake.

Obj cried a lot as per food production when he was military preseident and same when he became civilian president but unfortunate he did not do much about it.

Buhari cried a lot for this when he was a military president and till today Buhari still want our home agriculture to take the centre stage of food production in Nigeria so pls where now does Gej get it wrong by welcoming the idea of banning rice? And by the way he has NOT say I Ban it yet why all this abuse again? All that Iis needed is just to be reducing the importation bit by bit and be supporting the Local farmer to gear up more in production of Rice.

Nigeria is big enough to be able to do more in food production for her citizens let the govt face the reality and do something about it $3Billion is too much oh! heaven haba.

The critical problem with a lot of policies pushed by our leaders is this - while there is nothing technically wrong with the ban if it is to encourage local production - it is done in every growing and mature economies. What i find alarming is the prioritization of dependencies that this ban will affect. there is no contingencies for gaps that will be created with this policy and how to immediately close those gaps before they reach critical-mass. It is almost as if some politician or minister read an article in some business magazine on a flight to Abuja and as soon as he landed - that article became Policy. What is the evidence or research or impact assessment done for this Ban on Rice imports. How long will it last and how soon can we start seeing growth in local production. Was anything done about mechanized farming technologies, what about subsidized fertilizers and financial support to local large-scale farmers. There is an Agric-fund from UBA and the Federal Government. what is the utilization, apparently getting access to those funds is like trying to eat a boiled egg without cracking the shell. This is the one reason why a lot of policies are abandoned after huge spending has been undertaken at the Federal Government's expense (to the citizen's economic detriment)

a good move if you ask me

Johnpaul2k2:

a good move if you ask me

Exactly, i think it's a good move too!. . .Ban rice importation and create a monopolistic market for a few friends.

the voice of GEJ, the hands of Dangote!. . .lovely!